Tuesday, March 03, 2009

City Hall Pot and Bronx Kettle

The Politickerreported yesterday that Mike Bloomberg, for one, doesn't think that Adolfo Carrion did any thing wrong when he took developer money for a myriad of Bronx projects: "Michael Bloomberg said that he doesn’t think Adolfo Carrion did anything wrong by approving development projects associated with people who donated money to his campaigns...“I assume there’s been nothing done wrong there,” Bloomberg said, who went on to praise the city’s campaign finance system, which he said was better than the state’s."

But why would he? The solipsistic Mr. Bloomberg believes that moral rectitude devolves exclusively from an agreement with the mayor's own positions; and in the case of the Bronx-where the Terminal Market and Yankee Stadium debacles roiled that political landscape-the mayor and Adolfo were, well, perfect together. In fact AC emerged from those ventures soaking wet-giving new meaning to the idea of carrying some one's water.

But once again, the issue of campaign cash remains; and Adolfo assiduously plied the developertreasure trove with the kind of zeal that the neighborhood folks around Yankee Stadium only wished he had demonstrated for the preservation of their local parks. It's why AC was given the sobriquet, "Cash and Carrion," by the ever vigilant Juan Gonzales. But, as far as we can tell, there's no dissonance here for a mayor, whose concern for neighborhoods and small business has yet to be detected-even in the slightest.